Posts tagged hybrids

In terms of design elements that have been problematic over the course of World of Warcraft's existence, the idea of hybrid classes and what, exactly, they should be able to do has always been one of them. When the game first debuted, two hybrids - priests and warriors - weren't even treated like h...

Fisker Automotive is certainly no stranger to hold ups, and it turns out they've had another: production of the firm's Karma hybrid has been halted since its sole battery supplier, A123 Systems, filed for bankruptcy in October. Since A123 slowed its battery output after the filing, the automaker h...

With a couple exceptions, we hadn't heard much about Lenovo's Windows 8 plans until now. Okay, it teased the IdeaPad Yoga back at CES, and recently unveiled the business-friendly ThinkPad Tablet 2. But surely the company wasn't going to stop there, right? Hardly. Lenovo just announced the IdeaTab ...

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. In the world according to Apple, there are OS X-based Macs and iOS-based iPads. As it stands now in the era of disparate kitchen appliances, never the twain shall meet, even if they tend to borrow features from each ...

GM's OnStar team would really like us to stay on the electric side of the Chevy Volt's powertrain as much as possible. That's the selling point, after all. Rather than simply preach green driving and hope for the best, the division is testing a new EcoHub app that reminds Volt drivers just how mis...

You didn't think the world's top PC maker was going to sit out the laptop / tablet hybrid trend, now did you? HP, one of the last OEMs to share its Windows 8 plans, just announced the Envy x2, an 11-inch tablet that comes with a keyboard dock. And while that form factor may already seem tired, HP ...

If Computex was a coming out party for Windows 8 Ultrabooks, Toshiba was one of the wallflowers: though the company teased some concept devices, it only let journalists photograph them from certain angles, and with their screens turned off. Now, though, we're closing the summer with yet another tr...

"I don't think very highly of Henrik Fisker," Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, told Automobile magazine in a recent interview. Musk was recalling events leading up to a 2008 lawsuit in which Tesla accused Fisker of pilfering its hybrid technology to build the Fisker Karma. Musk isn't a fan of the a...

Most hybrid car drivers will tell you that their world is all about being gentle on the throttle, spending as much time as possible in that electric-only speed range even if it makes a family minivan look speedy. Volkswagen has just claimed a record for doing precisely the opposite: the 2013 Jetta...

Ford really, really wants you to know that it's big on electric cars. Really. To that end, it's putting $135 million where its mouth is as part of the design and production for the electrified vehicles rolling out to dealer lots this year, such as the Focus Electric. A new research building in Dea...

Technology companies have been lining up to milk the London Olympics spotlight for all it's worth. BMW isn't shy about taking its turn, but it's not looking to cash in -- directly, we mean. The automaker is instead using its just-opened i Store to showcase everything electric and hybrid for downto...

Audi's A2 and A1 EV concepts have been floating around for a while now, but it looks like neither will make it past the exploratory phase. According to Car Magazine, the auto maker is cancelling production of the two models due to concerns about pricing. The projected cost is apparently just sout...

You wanted Windows 8 tablet / laptop mash-ups, you got 'em! On the heels of some rather inventive product launches from Acer and ASUS here at Computex, Samsung is teasing a Win8 device of its own, the Series 5 Hybrid PC. For now, Samsung's not sharing many technical details -- we don't even know t...

ASUS has managed to keep a tight lid on its Computex 2012 lineup, but it left no doubt about this: it was on the verge of announcing a dual OS (and possibly dual form factor) device capable of running both Android and Windows. Otherwise, we've been left to throw guesses at the wall. Was this to be...

In addition to various Windows 8 tablets and a dual-booting all-in-one, ASUS announced the Transformer Book, a line of notebooks with detachable touch screens that can function as tablets -- not ARM-based tablets, mind you, but full-blown x86 slates. So, if you were wondering which side of the lap...

Last week, a newly purchased Fisker Karma went up in flames, damaging its owner's home and earning the company behind that hybrid sedan plenty of bad press. The auto maker hasn't submitted an official explanation for the fire, though the former chief engineer for the late General Motors EV1 electr...

Once upon a time, my guild was trying its hardest to down 25-man heroic mode Lich King. It was the very end of Wrath, and we were running out of time to put an end to the boss before the inevitable launch of Cataclysm. I had been playing an assassination spec since some point between Ulduar and...

And the hybrid devices keep on coming. Sitting high on a shelf in Microsoft's booth, hidden among the earthly clamshell laptops, is the Toshiba Portege M930, a prototype whose 13-inch screen slides down to completely cover the keyboard. All told, it's awfully reminiscent of the ASUS Eee Pad Slider ...

We knew CES would bring a slew of Ultrabooks, but who could have predicted 2012 would be the year of the franken-gadget? So far this week, we've seen Lenovo's IdeaPad Yoga, two hybrids from Gigabyte and a pair of 13- and 5.5-inch tablet prototypes from Toshiba. And that's saying nothing of Intel's ...

Among the hundreds of changes brought by EVE Online's recent Crucible expansion, the new tier 3 battlecruisers certainly rank as player favourites. Rather than giving each race a bigger, tougher battlecruiser, CCP gave the new ships the ability to fit battleship-class weapons but heavily limited ...